Trauma training improves medical readiness for BACH, Fort Campbell

Nurse educator, Leroy Cantrell from Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute, Joint Base San Antonio, shows participants of the Trauma Nursing Core Course at Blanchfield Army Community Hospital how to use a pelvic sling. Cantrell traveled to Blanchfield to teach the TNCC and evaluate the hospital's TNCC program. TNCC is a required qualification for military and federal service nurses and also offered to medical staff who serve as first responders. The training improves participants' ability to rapidly identify life-threatening injuries, conduct comprehensive patient assessment and perform intervention for better patient outcomes.(Photo: Maria Yager/Contributed, U.S. Army)

Thirteen medical providers from Fort Campbell completed the Trauma Nursing Core Course recently, enhancing their ability to quickly assess and treat patients with traumatic life-threatening injuries received at war or at home.

“When we say 'trauma,' we are talking about events or injuries that can be life threatening if they are not treated quickly," said Leroy Cantrell, a nurse educator from the Defense Medical Readiness Training Institute at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas. "These can include injuries from car and motorcycle accidents, gunshot wounds, explosions and falls."

Cantrell travels to military installations to teach TNCC training for the Defense Health Agency. The Department of Defense requires every military or federal service nurse to successfully complete TNCC every four years.

The training is based on a nationwide standard of the most common trauma skills emergency room and trauma nurses may require when treating patients with traumatic lifethreatening injuries. This standard improves medical personnel’s ability to rapidly identify lifethreatening injuries, conduct comprehensive patient assessment and perform intervention for better patient outcomes. The training is also available to medics and other military personnel who may serve as first responders in combat or during a mass casualty.

“My sergeant notified me about the training and I wanted to refresh on my skills a little bit," said Spc. Sean Colangelo, an enlisted nurse from the 86th Combat Support Hospital “Eagle Medics” who attend the training provided at Blanchfield. "I used to work in a post-anesthetic care unit so this seemed like a good idea to refresh on those skills and get some practice.”

Some of the topics covered in the TNCC include initial assessment, brain and cranial-facial trauma, burn trauma, abdominal trauma, airway and ventilation, stabilization, transfer and transport, and age-related trauma care for infants and geriatric patients. The DOD course also had modules for battlefield triage and battlefield wounds, some of which, said Cantrell, can be similar to trauma seen in the ER.